BPK

QUOTE (peavy44 @ Sep 2, 2014 -> 03:23 PM) Boras held out for cash not rodon. Not that it really matters all that much, but no, that was Rodon's ultimate decision. Boras has no actual authority (as opposed to considerable influence) in that relationship. Just my personal opinion, but I think Rodon's representation alone would justify treating him differently than they treated Chris Sale coming up.

QUOTE (Chicago White Sox @ Jul 31, 2014 -> 05:33 PM) Semien has a .813 OPS, which would be top 20 in the International League if he qualified, despite a BABIP 50 to 60 points his career average. His K & BB rates are both very strong and his ISO has actually improved this year. He's ready for a call-up by every metric but batting average, which again is depressed by bad luck. I'm sorry but Beckham flat out sucks and offers us nothing going forward as he will not be on this team in 2015. Now is the time to move on and give one of our THREE potential replacements a two month audition and hopefully get through some of their growing pains. Also, as bad as Semien was earlier this season, Beckham has somehow been worse despite years of "seasoning". Think about that for a minute and then us why we should give Beckham another month of at-bats. This. If they do the right thing and non-tender him this winter, then move him as fast as you can for whatever it may be. If you're lucky enough to get a lottery ticket or two, phenomenal. If not, at least you're giving at bats to guys who could be important the next time we're ready to compete for something meaningful. As it stands, we have nothing to gain from keeping him in the organization any longer.

QUOTE (ChiSoxJon @ Jul 13, 2014 -> 06:51 AM) major major long shot, haha, believe it or not his 19 year old ass was released, it's a shame I wanted to see him but looks like he may attend school now, baseball didn't work out Well I'll be damned. That's mildly depressing. http://www.milb.com/milb/stats/stats.jsp?s...&pid=622049. These lists, though, are the opposite. As others have said, we actually have some quality depth for the first time in years to go along with the lottery tickets at the top. It speaks volumes to have kids like Michalczewski, May (who's just getting his feet underneath him and hasn't had a break in, what, two years?), Barnum, Ravelo, Cleuluis, Saladino, and Adolfo battling it out for spots at the end of the top 10 or even 10-20 range.

QUOTE (flavum @ Apr 13, 2014 -> 01:30 PM) On his butt, watching the Masters. That crafty devil...

QUOTE (Bigsoxhurt35 @ Apr 13, 2014 -> 01:26 PM) Yeah, where's Hawk?

QUOTE (Chilihead90 @ Apr 5, 2014 -> 11:17 PM) I'm not getting excited yet because we saw the exact same story last year. Look at his start to the year last season, he had like 10 HR after 25 games. No, I'm totally with you. That's what I was alluding to. He'll hit a ridiculous bomb and spend the rest of his at-bats flailing away at the same breaking ball away from him.

QUOTE (scs787 @ Apr 5, 2014 -> 06:23 PM) Josh Norris @jnorris427 · 40s ago Courtney Hawkins just hit a ball to Durham. Holy Moses. And he might have been fooled. #WhiteSox Extremely early but ya gotta love the reports on him so far. Our kid is back! 1-3, HR ("And he might have been fooled."), 2K.

Okay, this seems fun. Here's a scale to use: 0 = never plays in the Bigs 1 = cup of coffee/outright bust 2 = useful role player or specialist for a couple years 3 = very useful bench/backup/utility/MR option 4 = borderline starting position player OR high quality setup man OR 5th starter, several seasons in the bigs 5 = average starting position player all around OR quality closer OR #4 type of starter, several seasons in the bigs 6 = above average starting position player all around OR dynamite closer OR #3 starter 7 = generally an All-Star level position player OR #2 type of starter 8 = perennial All-Star position player OR true ace SP 9 = HOF candidate Here are the names, no particular order: Jose Abreu - 6 Keon Barnum - 0 Rangel Ravelo - 0 Marcus Semien - 5 Micah Johnson - 3 Carlos Sanchez - 3 Leury Garcia - 3 Clelius Rondon - 1 Connor Gillaspie - 4 Matt Davidson - 5 Trey Michalscaweersdfski - I have absolutely no idea. Avisail Garcia - 6 Dayan Viciedo - 4 Adam Eaton - 6 Jordan Danks - 3 Jared Mitchell - 1 Trayce Thompson - 1 Keenyn Walker - 1 Adam Engel - I have absolutely no idea. Jacob May - 5 --- Chris Sale - 8 Jose Quintana - 6 Erik Johnson - 6 Chris Beck - 4 Nate Jones - 3 I don't know enough to judge the other pitchers.

QUOTE (Feeky Magee @ Feb 1, 2014 -> 12:23 AM) Thought it'd be fun to have a thread for the non-American Sox fans, to share experiences of following the Pale Hose outside of the States. I got into baseball and the White Sox through a mixture of insomnia and football (soccer). I always found myself awake at 4am when there was nothing happening in my time zone. Baseball had a reputation of being boring from what little I had discussed of it with friends and the couple of times I'd seen it I'd been fairly perplexed by the rules. However my nocturnalism forced my hand and I started watching more of it, not regularly though, and without a team there was no hook. This was in 2011 and my football team, Manchester United, were on a pre-season tour of America. I was watching MUTV and they showed club captain Gary Neville throwing the first pitch at the Cell ( ). I watched the game that night and the Sox beat the A's 9-4 behind Mark Buehrle, with home-runs from Adam Dunn (hitting .178 at the time) and Paul Konerko (.318). I loved the way Buehrle pitched, and I was hooked. Living in Ireland, there wasn't many places selling baseball stuff. My first Sox purchase was from eBay, a baseball signed by Adam Dunn. This was a mixture of economics (I was a poorly student and for aforementioned reasons Dunn stuff was dirt cheap) and feelings of pity for Dunn, who was getting booed at the time. I was actually a little disappointed when Dunn fell something like 4 plate appearances short of qualifying for the batting title and therefore officially the worst offensive season in modern baseball, it would have been a kind of morbidly cool tribute! I later got a second-hand Sox pinstripe jersey, on eBay too. Next on my wishlist for when I have a bit more money is this bad-boy: http://shop.mlb.com/product/index.jsp?productId=23867366 Watching the Sox is 99% internet streams, I used to get the odd game (usually versus the Yankees or Red Sox) on ESPN America, which came free with our TV package at home at the time, but not anymore. Very occasionally now when there's a Sox game on ESPN America and I'm in a bar which has it and nobody else is watching anything, I can get them to put it on. Unlike American football, there is little or no baseball following in Ireland. I'd say about 10-15% of my friends have an American football team, but the only baseball fans I know here were either born in America or have family there. I keep in touch with baseball through the internet and podcasts (Baseball America, White Sox Weekly, Up And In (Baseball Prospectus, sadly discontinued), Effectively Wild (also Baseball Prospectus)). I've gotten really into the world of the draft, which doesn't happen in sports over here, and prospects, which is a much more interesting area in baseball than in sports over here. I'm also fascinated by concepts like service time, arbitration, free agency etc. which also don't apply. For example, my two main sports are football (soccer) and hurling (brilliant Irish game involving sticks, a small ball, and carnage). In football, straight swaps of players are rare and sides usually buy players for cash. Although players are frequently accused of greed, it'd be funny to see what it'd be if it was like it is in baseball, where as far as I can see the player usually takes the biggest contract, regardless of how close the team are to winning. In football, the best players aspire to be on the teams who can win soon, although often (but not always) they'll also be the teams paying most. In hurling, every player is amateur and plays for the county (equivalent of state) they are from. So Mike Trout would play for New Jersey for his whole career and also not be paid. I haven't been to a game yet but I'll be starting a new college course in September, allowing me to get a student visa to the US for the summer of 2015 where hopefully I'll be able to get to a game or ten for the pennant-contending White Sox! So, foreign White Sox fans, how did you get into baseball/the White Sox? How do you follow the sport/watch the games? Have you attended a game/do you hope to? What's your experience like in general of following the Sox from abroad? P.S. This board has also been a great help in following the White Sox, between this, Twitter and the excellent writing on SouthSideSox, all my needs are covered, and I'm grateful. I'm pretty sure this is my favorite post that I've read on this board.

QUOTE (NorthSideSox72 @ Aug 12, 2013 -> 07:41 AM) You've now posted twice in a way that seems to indicate you have some information about him that others do not. Care to expound? I've just seen quite a bit of him, and I've been around him a little bit off the field. He's a very nice kid, and he seems to have good intentions, but he's also emotional and he wears those emotions on his sleeve in ways that get in his own way (e.g., showing up umpires and letting one bad or unsuccessful at-bat undermine his approach to the next two or three). I'm also not sure how well he digests the guidance the Rangers tried to give him. But - again - I take as much solace in his youth as the next guy on this board. If he matures even a little bit (like many people do at that age) he can be really good. I probably think he can hit more than most if his approach to things improves, and he's a very valuable SS (or CF...) if that happens.

QUOTE (Balta1701 @ Aug 10, 2013 -> 02:13 PM) Escobar was a year older when he made the roster out of ST, at least that's a little bit. Yeah, he's definitely still a kid, and I would play him at SS over anyone else at any level of the organization if/when he grows up. But he is a long, long way from being able to mentally handle the major leagues while also keeping himself under control.

QUOTE (thxfrthmmrs @ Aug 9, 2013 -> 05:04 PM) Eduardo Escobar with more speed And less maturity.

QUOTE (bbilek1 @ Jul 31, 2013 -> 03:14 PM) I hope Hahn pulls some magic out and signs Quintana to a nice contract. I agree. Quintana would be a nice long(er) term investment, and they could probably do it on team-friendly terms.

QUOTE (Rowand44 @ Jul 21, 2013 -> 02:27 PM) Lets hope that doesn't happen, we don't need the front office getting any crazy ideas. Like winning the division?

QUOTE (Chicago White Sox @ Jul 8, 2013 -> 08:53 PM) Then what happened last year when he seemed to be hitting a lot of pitches? I have no idea. I'm certainly not qualified to explain the difference. But it's obvious that things have been different this year, and it's just as obvious that he's completely overmatched. He's not seeing - or he's simply ignoring - whatever he saw that made him successful last year. And I don't mean to suggest that all hope is lost. He's a 19 year old (or there about) in High-A, and 19 year olds tend to keep learning. But he doesn't have a clue what he's doing right now.